41 Best Apps for Android in 2023

We bring you a collection of the best apps for Android of 2023, where we will combine some essential applications that can not miss on any device with some of the best apps released in 2022. The ultimate goal is that, whether you’ve bought a new phone or you’re feeling like an explorer, you can get the most out of it with these applications.

In this article, we will also try to make the types of applications as varied as possible so that we can satisfy the different types of users. We have a total of 41 applications with their corresponding download links, ranging from those for personalization to more practical ones.

And as we always say in Techidence, we are aware that in this compilation we may have left out some applications that you may consider essential or one of the best. Therefore, we invite you to leave your suggestions in the comments section so that the rest of the readers can also benefit from the knowledge of our Techidents.

APKMirror Installer

APKMirror Installer

Let’s start with a new application that will delight advanced users who often install third-party applications downloaded outside the Google App Store. This is an official installer for the popular APK Mirror repository, which is where you can find the APK installers for the different versions of each Android app, whether they are in the official mobile store or not.

The application will not help you to download the applications in APK format, you will have to keep doing it by hand. What it will do is help you to manage and help those APK files in an extremely easy way.

  • Developer: APKMirror
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Tools

Bing Wallpapers

Bing Wallpapers

When it comes to customizing Android to the max, one of the first steps you always have to take is to choose a good wallpaper. And Microsoft has created this application, launched in 2020, for just that. Its mission is simple but effective: give you access to all of Bing’s wallpapers to make your phone look as good as it can.

It’s a simple application, with a polished interface, and the advantage is that the wallpapers are downloaded in the highest quality and resolution. You can access Bing’s complete photo gallery, the latest collection of photos published in the search engine, or simply allow you to set the solid color you want as your background.

  • Developer: Microsoft Corporation
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Personalization

Canva

Canva is an online image design tool that we’ve already talked about in-depth and offered several tips for its desktop version. But this tool doesn’t just stay on the desktop, it also has a powerful mobile version that allows you to make multiple types of designs without paying.

With it, you’ll be able to create images and layouts for your social networks, both Instagram publications and stories, and it does so easily so you don’t have to have design skills to use it. It’s like an easy version of Photoshop, with up to 60,000 free templates created by professionals, and the ability to explore its paid version should you need a little more.

  • Developer: Canva
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Art & Design

Citymapper

Citymapper

This is another one of the many applications that repeat our list from last year, but that for a long time is still an absolute must for those who are going to visit a big city other than their own. You can configure the app to choose one of the capitals or big cities that are available, and when you do you can move around the city as if you were a local knowing all the combinations of public transport available. It works with your phone, but also with Android Wear watches.

Just tell the place where you are, and taking into account your geoposition, Citymapper will draw several routes from which you can choose. The routes will combine different public transports, so you can take a combination of bus, bus or subway, or just the subway. You will be guided step by step, with details such as how many stops you have left to get to the platform where you must get off to continue your journey and take the next link.

  • Developer: Citymapper Limited
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Maps and navigation

Disney+

Disney+

A little further down the list, you’ll find Netflix, which despite not being new is still one of the best streaming applications available. And among the competition that has been arriving non-stop, the newcomer Disney+ stands out, which features Disney’s productions, Star Wars, Marvel, and many others.

With its application you will be able to easily access all the content, being able to download it to your device so you can watch it later even if you do not have an Internet connection. You can also send what you are watching to the Chromecast, and it has the always successful option of skipping the introduction of another series.

  • Developer: Disney
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Entertainment

Feedly

Feedly is still one of the main applications for reading your news on any device, even your computer. It is a complete feed reader with good options to search, catalog, and review all the online media or blogs you want to add. All this with an easy-to-understand and managed interface.

This application will allow you to organize your reading pages by groups, and then read the latest posts from each group or directly from all of them at once. There are also other functions such as hot topics or current events, and the option of knowing which publications are having more readings. It has a free version and a paid version.

  • Developer: Feedly Team
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: News and magazines

Firefox Focus

Firefox Focus is not only a great browser for those who want to preserve their online privacy by blocking ads and trackers on web pages, but it’s one of the best browsers overall that you can download for your mobile phone, whether you use it as your primary browser or just for those occasional queries where you don’t want to be tracked.

The browser has been created by the same company behind Firefox, one of the ones that best takes care of your privacy. But with it, they wanted to go a little further by focusing exclusively on it. It has some positive aspects, such as not being able to manage several tabs well, but if you don’t mind, it is still one of the most important ones.

  • Developer: Mozilla
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Communication
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Gboard

Installing a third-party keyboard not only helps you gain extra features on your phone but also allows you to customize it a little more. And in the field of keyboards for Android, Gboard is undoubtedly one of the great references, very popular for having menus that integrate many of Google’s services.

Without going any further, on this keyboard you can use the Google translator as if it were an extension. You also have an emojis search engine and the possibility of creating personalized stickers with your face to use in any application or write in two languages at once. Maybe, if you are one of those people who are very concerned about privacy you don’t like that Google can know what you write, but in return, you have a very versatile keyboard.

  • Developer: Google LLC
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Tools

Google Keep

Google Keep

Google Keep has long been one of the best note-taking apps on Android, another tool created by Google itself to compete with third-party apps, and that you can use both from your mobile and from the web, which helps a lot to be able to take or consult notes wherever you are. It allows you to create reminders by place, you can share notes, and even create collaborative notes, for example, to make the shopping list as a family.

There are also different formats, such as conventional text notes or checklists whose content you can mark as done. You can color the notes like a post it so you can organize them as you like. In short, another of those almost essential applications that may remain on the list of best apps for quite some time.

  • Developer: Google LLC
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Productivity

Google Photos

Google Photos

Google Photos is another one of those applications that for a long time still a must for any Android user. You can use it in two ways, for free to have unlimited space in exchange for the photos being compressed, or by buying space on Google One to be able to upload them in original quality.

But beyond the limits of space, the great asset of Google Photos is in its interface, both in mobile and in the browser. It has a search engine to find the photos you want by different terms or dates, writing the name of a city or country to find the photos you took there, or even terms like concert or flower to find the photos that Google interprets as such. You also have the automatic creation of enhanced photos or videos, the ability to group photos by faces to see only those of certain people or create your albums in which you can even put maps when they are on some trip.

  • Developer: Google LLC
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Photography

Google Maps

Google Maps

Share your location, review the history of places you’ve been, remember where you parked your car, rearrange custom maps, measure distances, create group plans, design and share your routes or even control Spotify while driving, or even find restaurants that have takeaway service. There are so many features in Google Maps that it’s another app that’s been a must-have for Android for years.

The Google Maps application has long since stopped being just that. Not only does it guide you and help you get to a certain place when you walk or drive, but by proxy, you can even leave ratings on a location rating system that rivals giants like TripAdvisor. In short, it’s another must-have for virtually any mobile user, not just Android users.

  • Developer: Google LLC
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Travel and guides

Inoreader

Inoreader

A little above we have proposed Feedly as one of the reference applications when organizing your feeds. Well, the other great app for feeds is Inoreader, which also allows you to add as many pages as you want to organize all the new publications that are launched in them.

We’ll be able to create different sets of subscriptions so that you always have the pulse of the news, and you have a trend section to see which are the most popular and important articles of the moment. All this, is being able to tag your pages and organize your subscriptions the way you want.

  • Developer: Innologica
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: News and magazines

Krita

Krita

Although we have tried to make most of the applications on the list work always on mobiles, Krita is a must-have application if you like editing and drawing. It’s still in early access, but you can already use it on Android tablets or Chromebooks with the possibility of installing Android apps.

In this case, the application is very powerful and full of possibilities, as if it were a drawing application for desktop computers. But this also has a negative side and is that you will need some time to learn how to use it because it is not as adapted to novice users as others. But if you are an advanced user, you will surely benefit from it.

  • Developer: Stichting Krita Foundation
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Art & Design

Microsoft Launcher

Microsoft Launcher

Android launchers are like a customization layer where you can control and customize aspects of the phone such as its desktops, notifications, icons, or application drawer. With them, each manufacturer adapts their phones to a different experience controlled by them than the standard Android, but there are also third-party launchers that help a lot with customization.

One of the best you will find is Microsoft Launcher, especially if you have a PC, as it helps a lot to integrate Android with Windows. It also offers a lot of customizable gestures, the ability to customize wallpapers, add Widgets or change themes, and install icon packs. It also integrates with the Windows 10 Timeline and allows you to use Cortana.

  • Developer: Microsoft Corporation
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Personalization

Net Speed Indicator

Net Speed Indicator

Net Speed Indicator is an app with a clean and minimalist design, with easy-to-understand graphics with which you can know the data you are using with your mobile in real time, showing you the speed and network usage at all times.

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It’s a free app with ads, but they’re not too annoying. In addition to showing you the total expenditure of mobile data and graphs with its evolution, it allows you to know the consumption of each application also in real time. This way you will be able to know which apps are the most popular and make decisions to stretch your data rate as much as possible.

  • Developer: Paget96
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Tools

Netflix

Netflix

Netflix has become a great streaming service of reference. It may not have that halo of quality in all its productions, but it has a lot of them, and its Android app is outstanding in terms of options and features. The classics are skipping introductions and chapter summaries, but also the management of the chapters you’re watching.

Beyond that, it also has a section of Trending Topics where you are shown the most viewed content of the day in your country, and several types of lists and categories (some of them hidden) to propose your content. In addition to that, you can submit content to Chromecast, and Netflix also learns from you to offer you content related to others you have been watching.

  • Developer: Netflix, Inc.
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Entertainment

Nova Launcher

Nova Launcher

And if we mention Microsoft Launcher as one of the reference launchers, we cannot forget about the one that is the most important independent launcher of Android: Nova Launcher. It fulfills two important objectives, allowing you to personalize the device to the maximum and bringing to all Android devices some of the exclusive features of other manufacturers’ launchers, such as Pixel phones.

Nova maintains a very good balance between features, constant development, and stability. It may not be the most customizable or beautiful of all, but it is one of the most versatile, and a larger community behind it helps it to stay, grow and gain more and more new features.

  • Developer: TeslaCoil Software
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Personalization

Openboard

Openboard

In this list, we have already included two keyboard applications for Android, but let me include the third one because this one is a newcomer and it looks great. It’s OpenBoard, and it aims to be an open-source alternative to Google’s Gboard, all for free and without ads. Simply, a project that is being born in the open-source community.

Being so new, there are small drawbacks that can be put to it, such as having quite a few customization options. What it does have is the same look as the keyboard created by Google, its corresponding grammar checker, and total independence from search engine company libraries.

  • Developer: dslul
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Tools

Photoshop Camera

If you like taking photos and applying all kinds of effects to them, Photoshop Camera is one of the best and newest applications designed for that purpose. The filters are generated by AI and you can see their effects in real-time, which means that you will be able to see how your photo will look before you take it, pointing the camera and seeing the result on your mobile screen.

The application’s interface is very easy to use, as it’s practically the same as you’ll find in other applications such as Instagram. In big you have how the photo and the button to take it or record a video will look like, and below you have a list of thumbnails with all the filters you’ll be able to apply.

  • Developer: Adobe
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Photography

Read Along by Google

Read Along by Google

This is an application created by Google so that young children can learn to read with it. Last year it was initially launched in India under the name Bolo, but in 2020 it started to spread to other countries with additional languages like Spanish and was renamed Read-Along by Google.

The app uses gamification techniques, joining a selection of stories with several mini-games so that children begin to understand the letters. The application is also capable of listening to the reading and making corrections thanks to a speech recognition system.

  • Developer: Google LLC
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Education

Shadow Weather

Shadow Weather

Dark Sky is a relatively well-known weather application that stands out for its hyperlocal predictions, and this 2020 was bought by Apple and its Android version was completed. But you know how this works, a dead king put, and after the disappearance of this app came others like Shadow Weather to try to take his place.

And what does this app offer? Well, a very neat interface full of all the data you need to know the weather forecast, including alerts for when the weather is going to change. It allows you to access the forecast by hours and days in all values and offers a column by hours for each day in advance where you can see the weather fluctuation throughout the day, all with the detail of including sunrise and sunset.

  • Developer: Shadow Weather LLC
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Time

Snapseed

If you’re looking for a photo-editing application, Snapseed has been one of the best for many years, mainly because it offers an easy-to-use gesture-based interface despite its many tools. Everything works by sliding your finger to change settings and change the level of each setting.

With Snapseed you’ll be able to do everything from simple snipping to advanced settings such as changing the orientation of a face or deleting objects. Its main advantage is that it’s completely free, with no ads or surprises. So you have everything you need to edit photos from the limitations of a mobile screen.

  • Developer: Google LLC
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Photography

Solid Explorer

Although it costs $0.99, it is a great reference in the world of file browsers since ES File Explorer went bad. It offers two independent panels acting as file browsers, drag-and-drop options between them, and multiple customization options with icons, themes, and color schemes.

It has support for FTP, SFTP, WebDav, and SMB/CIF clients, and allows you to unzip files, encrypt them, or create password-protected archives. Besides, you can link your accounts in the cloud, it has support for root access, indexed search, tools such as hide folders, and support for Chromecast. And if that’s not enough, you can also install additional plugins.

  • Developer: NeatBytes
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free and Paid
  • Category: Productivity
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Spotify

Within music streaming applications, the competition is somewhat less fierce than in the streaming of series and movies. Here Spotify dominates with a multiplatform application that is constantly being updated, both for its paid version and its improved free mode. It’s an application that will serve you both for its music catalog and for consuming podcasts.

As for playback, you will be able to control the playback of your songs and make playlists with your favorites. But the great strength of the application is its recommendations, as the more music you listen to the more it will learn about your tastes, and the better recommendations or custom playlists you will receive.

  • Developer: Spotify Ltd.
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Music and audio

SwiftKey

If we mentioned Gboard before, we can’t leave out the other great virtual keyboard for Android. Before Gboard began to take off, SwiftKey was a must-have, and it has managed to keep up with such must-have features as its intelligent auto-correction system that learns not only what you type, but also how to remind you of your strange words when you’re setting them up.

In general, you won’t find as many implementations and functions as the Google keyboard, but everything it does is outstanding. You can also link to other services to learn from them. Also, behind the keyboard, you have another great company like Microsoft, which will give you some security for their future and the resources they are going to use to continue making progress.

  • Developer: SwiftKey
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Productivity

Telegram

Telegram

Telegram is by far one of the best messaging applications you can find. Compared to WhatsApp it may not have the same user base, but it has almost all the essential features and many more, such as a bot system or the ability to create channels, all of which can be used from several devices at once.

You can use Telegram as your cloud, as it can send messages and files to yourself. You can also create chat folders to organize your conversations, and make use of its many customization options to give it a unique look. Remember, you won’t need to give out your phone number to be contacted either, thanks to its username system.

  • Developer: Telegram FZ-LLC
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Communication

TikTok

TikTok

TikTok has become one of the biggest social networks of the moment, and although it is not so well known by people who already combed some gray hair, among the youth it is a steamroller, and in it, you can find creativity far superior to most other social networks of video creation.

So much so, that it is increasingly common to see TikTok videos shared on other social networks. Add to your users’ creativity a complete toolbox for creating all kinds of original videos, or even creating a video where you interact with other users’ videos. All this with dozens of effects and filters of all kinds.

  • Developer: TikTok Inc.
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Social

TV Show & Movie Tracker

This application is one of the best clients on Android for using Trakt. It is a free service with which you can keep track of the series and movies you are watching, rating them in general or by seasons and chapters. Its great attraction compared to the many alternatives is that it has an open API and integrates with many other applications such as Kodi or Plex.

The platform is open and through its API allows others to make different applications to use its database. You will also find information about all the players, a release schedule, custom suggestions, or lists of what you have seen. And if you get tired of the app in the future, you can find another one that is also a Trakt client to keep all your data and not lose it.

  • Developer: Jonathan ANTOINE
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Entertainment

Ultra Volume

Ultra Volume

This is an application to help you customize Android. Specifically, it is used to change the appearance of the volume control bars. These controls depend on each manufacturer, as each launcher has its own. But if you don’t like them, this app helps you change them.

The app will only need permission to access Do Not Disturb mode (to control the phone’s ringing) and accessibility tools (to override the volume keys). When you give it to them, you’ll have one with several styles to choose from, both free and paid, and choosing your own will change both the system menus and the physical buttons on the device.

  • Developer: Treydev Inc
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Personalization

VLC Player

VLC Player

Another application that is simply a must, both in its desktop and Android versions. VLC is the application that ticks the most boxes when comparing video players, with support for Chromecast, subtitles, and codecs.

If you use or used VLC on a PC, the Android version is a worthy successor that includes advanced features such as floating window mode or searching and downloading subtitles directly from the application. All this with a good interface and all kinds of compatibilities so you don’t miss anything.

  • Developer: Videolabs
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Video players and publishers

WhatsApp

WhatsApp

There is little we can say about WhatsApp that you don’t already know. It is simply the messaging application that almost everyone uses, so even though it has some weaknesses compared to other alternatives, it is still a must when communicating with other people through the mobile phone.

  • Developer: WhatsApp Inc.
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Communication

Zedge

Zedge

And finally, let’s do it with another app for Android customization lovers. This is Zedge, an app that offers high-quality wallpapers, ringtones, or notification tones. All of this is offered to you in a catalog with several categories that you can browse to download the content you want.

It’s an application that has a few bugs, and the ads in its free version can sometimes be too annoying. But if you’re looking to personalize your phone, it’s one of the best options you’re going to find.

  • Developer: Zedge
  • Download on: Google Play
  • Price: Free
  • Category: Personalization

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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